Memoirs Of A Nerd And A Princess
by monstersandlostboys
Summary: Things were never normal between Mia and Michael. Watch as the two of them grow up, connected only by a little sister and best friend. Watch as they protect each other; as they fall in love. A series of one shots over the years Michael had known Mia.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Heyyy guys. I'm back, but only because I can't stay away from freaking Michael Moscovitz. I swear, I like him more than I like the boys I meet in real life. **

**Anyway, someone told me I should make more Little Michael and Mia stories, so I'm going to. Hopefully, I'm much better of a writer than I was when I started fanfictioning a year ago.**

**So read and review fellow Michael/Mia lovers, and feel free to message me, to give me tips or give your opinion, or just say hi. Don't worry about bothering me, I have no life.**

**This is when Mia meets Lilly and in turn, meets Michael. There isn't much contact between them, but I'm just getting started. **

**These stories are going to be mostly oneshots, and I don't own PD.**

**Gosh, I miss this. :)**

* * *

When I was five I met my bff. A legitimate Best Friend Forever. Sure, Lilly and I have had fights, but that's an important part of a stable best friend relationship that is considering lasting Forever. I mean, Forever is a _really _long time, and to get along for the lot of it can't be healthy.

But anyway, for my whole life, I've had someone _there_, to talk to, and laugh with and invite to things.

I've always taken it for granted, but now that I think about it, not a lot of people have had that growing up. A consistent best friend throughout their childhood.

I'm grateful to Lilly for that.

But not only that.

If I had not met Lilly I never would have laid my little eyes on the _hottest _eight year old that walked this planet when I did.

When I met Michael Moscovitz, it was like…I _finally _understood what life was about. It was like someone had punched me in the stomach and pointed at him, saying that _this _is what I've been looking for for all of my five years. I was allowed to die, then, because I had found the meaning of living.

And I knew that this boy would ruin my life, and I understood that this would hurt more than anything I would ever feel, because I knew that that was what Love is.

Because I don't care what anyone else says, even at five years old, you know Love when you feel it.

~!~

My dad had sent me a dress for my first day of kindergarten, and to be honest, I kind of liked it. It was pale yellow, and soft and lacy.

When I called him to thank him, even though I couldn't wear anything that was made in a sweat shop by children making only ten cents an hour, my father said it wasn't.

And when I tried it on, I felt like a princess.

That was when I finally admitted to liking the dress.

I had never been into the whole girly thing. Until then, I had been planning on wearing my lady bug t-shirt and jeans to school. But I had just recently re-watched The Princess Bride on ABC Family, and I thought that I looked just like Princess Buttercup.

I asked my mother if she thought that I looked like a Princess and her mouth got all thin, and she said that Princesses actually live very unhappy lives sometimes and that society had made the abhorrent life style seem glorious since the beginning of Royalty, and that I probably would rather wear my ladybug shirt.

I wouldn't have.

But the dress seemed to make my mother unhappy, and I hated making her unhappy, so I wore my ladybug shirt, and never saw the pretty dress that made me look like a princess again.

Because I wasn't crying, and I did not pee on myself on the first day of school, my teacher did not really fuss with me much. I stayed quiet and did what I was told and was glad when I was told it was time to go outside for recess.

After I had finished my granola bar, I found a nice spot against a tree and proceeded to rip out the braid my mother had tried to tie into my hair. It had been killing me for the longest time, but I didn't want to move around too much during class.

When I was finished, my dishwater blonde hair stuck out from my head in an inconsistent frizz of curls and knots but I didn't care with the ease only a kindergartener could have.

But with a meanness only a kindergartener could have, I was confronted about it immediately.

"Amelia," The blonde girl materialized out of nowhere. I watched longingly as she twirled in her yellow, lacy dress, that was no where near as beautiful as mine, but made her look more like a princess than I could ever be.

"What is wrong with your hair?" She twirled a golden curl as she asked, genuinely curious.

I pat at my head, stomach dropping. What _was _wrong with my hair? "Nothing," I whispered. My voice was raw from disuse.

Tears pooled at my eyes as the girl laughed. "It looks weird!"

I opened my mouth to tell her something. What, I wasn't sure yet. To shut up, to leave me alone, nothing came out.

Suddenly, the girl was shunt forward, her golden hair yanked into her face, and a soccer ball landed with a thud by her feet. She was crying before the culprit ran up, apologizing.

"Sorry, Lana! Didn't mean to hit you in the head, but I thought you were the goal post, for some reason. Maybe I need glasses or something." Lilly Moscovitz didn't look sorry at all as she grabbed the ball from the grass.

"Lilly, you _jerk! _I'm _telling!_" But she didn't need to. Her screaming had attracted the whole kindergarten class to my tree, but no one noticed when the brunette pigtailed head bobbed over to me and grabbed my hand with a smile.

No one noticed when we walked away, still holding hands, already best friends.

"Lana said that you shouldn't be friends with Lilly because she's mean and ugly and we should make a club where only girls with _yellow _hair can be in," a dirty blonde girl whispered to me when Lilly went to wash her hands.

It was the end of our first day of school and alliances were already being made.

"No thanks," I murmured, and looked at my paint splattered hands. "My hair isn't really yellow enough. Plus, Lana already said it looks weird, so she can't like it now. And Lilly is beautiful and my best friend."

"That's right, miss priss. Now go to hell." Lilly showed up behind us, and the girl scampered away, off to tell the teacher, or whatever.

"Stick up for yourself, Mia," She told me seriously, as we packed our things up. She was the only person I told I liked to be called that. "I can already tell that that's your major downfall. There's my brother, I think I'm leaving."

And there he was. Michael Moscovitz, speaking to our upset teacher, and looking irritated.

His hair was too long and he didn't stand up quite straight. The brown mop on his head covered most of his eyes so all you saw was his freckled nose and his pale, chapped lips.

He bit onto his bottom lip with too-big front teeth at what our teacher told him. She handed him a note and he shoved it into his khaki pants and straightened his tie. The older grades had to wear their uniforms on the first day of school.

Lilly ruined my vision of her brother when she walked up to him. He smacked the back of her head in a sibling way and his mouth frowned.

"Now, Michael, no need to-" Our teacher stammered helplessly.

"It's fine. I'll tell my parents. She'll be better, I promise." I could hear them now that I paid attention.

Lilly glared at her brother as he grabbed her arm and tried to walk out the door. "Wait!" She cried. She grabbed onto the doorway and a confused parent maneuvered their way around the siblings to pick up their child.

"You have to meet Mia." Lilly told her brother. He looked at her incredulously. "She's my best friend," That was suppose to make him care more?

Lilly sighed and led her brother over carpet and around little desks so that they stood right in front of me.

"Mia, this is my brother, Michael. Michael, my best friend Mia."

I waved a little bit but looked down, blushing, as soon as he flipped his hair out of his face and I could see his brown eyes. I fought the need to pat down my hair and wished I had kept it in my braid.

"Hey," he murmured, fixing his backpack so that it rested on both of his shoulders. "Okay, Lilly, let's go. Mom's going to freak when she hears that you…"

And then he turned around and then they were gone.

When my mother came to pick me up a few minutes later, my teacher told me I was great, but I was hanging out with a bit of a naughty group. My mother told her off, saying that she can't judge these children she just met, and on the cab ride home, when she asked how my day was, I could only say, fine.

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**\/**

**please?**

**it would make my liffffeee!**

**\/**


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/n **_**Hey, hey. I'll nutshell this.**

**Sorry I took so long, I've been busy. I'm trying a new style of writing, and would really like an outsider's opinion. Should I stick with the way I wrote in chapter one, or do you like this way? I haven't read Princess Diaries in like, a year now, so pardon my blunders, also, I'm not really sure how life works in New York, so again, sorry.**

**I don't own, please review, and enjoy. (:**

* * *

_Monday, April 14, 1992 (Michael is 9, Mia is 6)_

Michael: It's raining.

It's raining and Lilly is sick. It's only the common cold, and she would have been over it by now if she hadn't been so _stubborn_, and stayed inside.

My parents almost had to tie her to her bed this morning.

When I left, my mother, having somehow deciphered Lilly's incoherent screams, asked me to walk Mia home after school today.

Mia is old enough to walk herself home, I told her.

I am old enough to give away my collection Pokemon cards, she threatened me.

So now I am waiting outside the lower grade classroom so I can walk my demonic little sister's best friend home.

The door opens and the worn-down first grade teacher squints through the rain. She turns around. "I'm sure your parents wouldn't want you out in this," she calls. "They can just come get you from in here."

She pushes the door to the wall and it stays open when she rejoins the children.

I go inside, and the teacher smiles at me. "Oh, Michael. Lilly isn't here. She was absent. My, was she suppose to be-"

"I'm here for Mia," I interrupt her.

I follow the first grade stares and find Mia sitting alone. She is small, but taller than most of the kids in her class. Her hair is wild and almost blonde, but not quite. Strands of hair are caught in her mouth. She pulls them away with a little hand, nails chipped with pink polish.

She was looking at the drawing on her desk, but now she's looking at me, and she's surprised. Her silver eyes are wide and she blushes under freckles.

I am a little irritated. Did she think that we would have made her walk home alone?

Also, she isn't moving, and I'm ready to go. Watching her pointedly doesn't work, and more parents are coming inside.

I walk to her desk, and she starts panicking. She flips over her drawing and struggles to be ready before I get to her desk.

She succeeds. By the time I am by her desk, she is wearing her Sailor Moon backpack, and her drawing is rolled up in her nervous hands. "Let's go," I say. She glances at the empty seats to her left and right. "Okay," she murmurs.

I tell the teacher Mia is leaving. She seems distressed, and says that she's not sure that she's comfortable with that.

I ask her if she wants to take Mia home. She said to go ahead, just don't tell the principal.

We are walking down to the curb. Neither of us are speaking. Mia's legs are shorter than mine, and she's almost running in her panda bear goulashes to keep under my umbrella.

I slow down.

"Let's hail a cab," I say. That would be easier, maybe. "Okay," she whispers over the sound of fast cars on wet pavement.

We're in a taxi. I tell the driver not to worry, I have money, and give him the address of Mia's loft and my apartment.

No one is speaking.

"How was your day?" I ask. Okay, she says.

"How was it being without Lilly?" I ask. Okay, she says.

"If you have any trouble, or anything, with the kids in you class, I can hit them for you," I tell her. Okay, she says.

I am irritated again. "Mia! Respond with something other than _okay, _okay?"

"Oh-sorry." she's smiling. Now I'm smiling, too.

I remember her backpack. "Sailor Moon is cool," I tell her.

She nods, smiling more. "I like the one with the blue hair," I tell her, so do I.

She was the blue Sailor for Halloween last year. I remembered - She came trick-or-treating in our apartment building.

She asked if I had seen Aladdin on tape yet? I tell her that of course I have. She and Lilly have only watched a million times in the living room of my apartment.

She wonders what it's like to be a princess, like Jasmine. She thinks she might like it very much.

I tell her that she wouldn't because Jasmine wasn't happy being a princess, and ran away.

"Yeah, but that's only before she met Aladdin." she informs me. "When she met Aladdin, she's glad to be a princess, because she has met her true love and they got married and he is the prince." She looks up at me, and I tell her she's right.

"That movie is inaccurate anyway," I say, looking away from her metal eyes. "Disney is romanticizing something that isn't romantic at all. I mean, it just isn't _like _that in-"

She interrupts me, "If I were a princess, you could be my prince, Michael," she said so quietly, I had to ask her to repeat herself.

I'm flattered. "I would be honored to be your prince, kid."

We're in front of Mia's loft. I let her walk up by herself since it had stopped raining. "Bye," she whispered as she shut the door.

I'm confused.

I'm confused as to why I'm confused.

I whisper back, but she's already inside and the cab is already driving to my apartment. "Bye, Mia."

There's something on the floor where Mia had been sitting. I recognize it immediately. "WAIT!" I call. The driver said that the traffic is too heavy in that direction to turn around if it wasn't an emergency.

I guess it's not that big of an emergency.

Mia left her drawing, curled into itself.

I promise myself that I'm going to look. I'm going to give it back to her tomorrow and I will tell her I didn't even look at it.

I unroll it.

It's a mess, and I can not really tell what it is. But after turning it over a couple times I can see it's two people. A girl with yellow hair and something purple in it, and a boy with brown hair and something blue in it. They're standing in orange grass with green flowers.

I can almost read the first-grade penmanship.

Pr-

Prisnes-

Prisnes Mia und prinns mikul.

Princess Mia and Prince Michael.

I'm suddenly shaking, and my heart is beating hard. I can't breathe.

I stick the drawing in my backpack. I'm never giving it back.

Mia's cool. For a first grader.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N**_

_**K, so, I am so not good at writing with the diction of a six year old, which you can tell, but I promise it will get better after this chapter because the next chapter Michael's 11 and so yeah. **_

_**Also, I can't seem to get that feeling of Aww into the story, but I'm hoping that's just me, and you can feel the little people love here. **_

_**I'm kind of just not satisfied with this, but I promise I promise I PROMISE I will. Just keep reading and reviewing and suggesting and I will totally get it. :D**_

_**And like, the math for the ages and junk is way off, but this is fanfiction, darn it! Do you really care?**_

_**Kbye.**_

* * *

_Tuesday, August 27, 1993 (Michael is 10, Mia is 6)_

Mia: Today is mybestfriend, Lilly's 7th birthday.

I don't turn seven until October, and I can't wait.

I'm tired of being so little, especially since my mother's so old, and Lilly is now seven and even her brother, MichaelMoscovitz is ten years old.

I'm tired of being the baby.

But today isn't about me, because it's about celebrating mybestfriend and the day she was born, seven years ago.

My mom took me down to Ri h rd's L qu r which used to be Richard's Liquor but then the some of the letters fell down, and she bought me a bottle of Jones soda which is good soda, because it's made of pure cane sugar. I drank it and then pulled off the label and then I drew on the bottle with permanent marker.

I drew flowers and my mom helped me spell _Happy Birthday Lilly! _on the side. Then we walked outside and bought a rose from one of the men selling roses outside and I filled the bottle with water and put the rose in it and that was Lilly's birthday present.

I am so proud of my vase and I know Lilly will love it, when she opens the door and lets me into her apartment.

But she's not doing that. No one is answering the door. I'm getting anxious and my mother is petting my hair like she does when she knows I might cry.

I don't cry, though, because the door is opened and MichaelMoscovitz is there and he's in his Ren and Stimpy boxers and a brown shirt. He looks tired and confused and I know that he had been watching Seinfeld because I can hear it playing in the living room.

He says hey, and my mom asks him if Lilly is there? and he says no but he thinks she and the Mrs. and Mr. Moscovitz had taken her to a toy store to buy her something that she wanted and to pick up her icecream cake.

My mom looks upset and embarrassed and says she has a protest about the "Don't ask don't say" or something like that or whatever, to go to at noon and she had hoped that I could stay with the Moscovitz' while she was gone but if Lilly wasn't home, she could stay until they came back and then go to the protest later-

But MichaelMoscovitz said it was okay and that he would watch me until Lilly and his parents came home.

My mom says thankssomuchMichaelyou'resosweet and left really quickly so she wouldn't be late.

"Um. Come in?" MichaelMoscovitz asks me after a moment which was awkward because we were just standing there in front of his apartment with him in his boxers and me with a homemade vase in my hands.

I say thanks and go inside. I sit on the couch in the living room and hold the vase in my lap while MichaelMoscovitz turns off the TV and on the radio.

He asks me if I like Snoop Doggy Dogg? and I say that I do. He nods his head and he says Yeah, he's cool. There is a Snoop Doggy Dogg song playing on the radio. MichaelMoscovitz is humming the words with Snoop. I'm not allowed to sing the words, but I know them.

MichaelMoscovitz sees the vase and asks if it is Lilly's present. I say that is and that I made it by himself. He nods again and sits on the couch next to me.

I'm thirsty and ask if I could have a Sunny Delight and he says I can. I bring my vase with me into the kitchen, because for some reason I don't really want MichaelMoscovitz to look at it.

I get the plastic bottle of Sunny Delight and I place my vase on the counter. It's so high that I have to reach to put it there but when I was in kindergarten I had to jump, so it's okay.

I can't open the Sunny D. I don't want to ask MichaelMoscovitz to open to it because now he's listening to Madonna and I don't want to bother him. I twist with all I can, and I open the bottle, but I drop it too, and Sunny D splashes everywhere.

I gasp and fall back with my arms flailing and I fall into the counter and my arms knock down my vase and it falls to the tile and shatters into a million pieces.

All of a sudden I am on the floor and I can't breathe. My hair is too hot on my neck and I'm crying and everything is ruined and I am going to die. The walls are dripping with orange-flavored juice and the floor is damp with it, too, and it's mixed with water and glass and my hands are bleeding. Even the rose is being crushed under my jeaned knees.

Someone is patting my back and they are helping me stand up. They're pulling my hot hair off of my neck and they're hugging me and telling me not to cry it's all right, it's all right.

It's MichaelMoscovitz and he's shaking me now. Breathe! he's yelling. Breathe!

"Mia, you need to breathe! I'll fix this, I promise!"

I take a big breath and I stop crying, just because MichaelMoscovitz told me to.

He takes me to the bathroom and he puts bandages on my hands. He tells me that he was going to put some pants on and that we would walk to the liquor store and buy a new bottle for a new vase.

MichaelMoscovitz is a hero.

He tells me not to worry about the kitchen because the Moscovitz's Dominican house maid, Maya will clean it up, and he leaves to tell her what happened and put on some jeans.

MichaelMoscovitz is wearing pants and I had washed away most of the evidence that I had just had a mild panic attack and I apologize to Maya for the kitchen. She says it's okay and she pats my head in a nice way.

MichaelMoscovitz and I take the stairs to the lobby of their apartment, and when we get onto the sidewalk, he holds my hand. I almost tell him he doesn't need to hold my hand and that I am almost seven and that almost-seven-year-olds don't need their hands held.

But I don't.

He's still holding my hand when we get to their corner liquor store and he buys a Jones soda with his own money, but he says it's okay because he's going to drink it.

He asks me if I wanted a sip but I tell him it was okay and we leave the liquor store.

We can't find a man who sells roses on the street, so MichaelMoscovitz picks a pretty pink flower from the barrel of flowers outside of Caffe Dante and then he tells me to run, but he's holding my hand still, so I don't have a choice.

By the time MichaelMoscovitz and I get back to the Moscovitz house, Maya had finished cleaning the kitchen and MichaelMoscovitz had finished his soda. He peeled off the label and put the flower on the kitchen counter. He doesn't have to reach to put it there.

MichaelMoscovitz brought out a packet of colored permanent markers and he has more colors than I did, and he teaches me how to draw dinosaurs like the ones in Jurassic Park and he also draws the green van from the movie and I draw trees and little dinosaurs and he says that this vase is themed Jurassic Park because that's Lilly's favorite movie.

Then MichaelMoscovitz lifts me up to the kitchen sink so I can fill the bottle with water. He squeezes me too tight around my stomach, but I don't mind.

Just as MichaelMoscovitz puts the flower into the vase Mister Moscovitz opens the door and I hear Lilly. "Happy birthday, Lilly!" I call, and holding the vase I run to the living room and give it Lilly. She loves it and she gives me a hug and says that Jurassic Park is her favorite movie.

"Where's Michael?" Mrs. Moscovitz asks, and then we hear MichaelMoscovitz's bedroom door slam.

Lilly shrugs and says that her brother wasn't invited to her birthday celebration anyway.

But I forgot to thank him…

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	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N Heyy you guyss!**_

_**So I got the ages from a reviewer, so I should be more accurate age-wise, now. (Thanks again!)**_

_**I am trying to make them longer, and so yeah.**_

_**Hey did I tell you guys that I'm in love? With a real boy? Who goes to my school? And has a girlfriend? Probably not, because I haven't told anyone.**_

_**But anyway, I am so happy I don't have to write like a little kid anymore. It makes me dizzy.**_

_**Also, I went back to the old style of writing because the other is too much work.**_

_**I don't cuss much, but little Michael does. :o**_

_**I put some sibling love in hurr.**_

_**Happy birthday Caitlin! **_

_**Okay, I'm done. Enjoy! And thanks so much for the reviews, I love you guys so much, and your tips mean so much to me, as does the fact that your actually reading this, and um, I don't own PD. Kciao.**_

_Wednesday, October 22, 1994 (Michael is 11, Mia is 8)_

It's embarrassing sometimes, when I'm playing kickball at recess, or whatever, and someone comes up to me and is all, _Michael! Your little sister is fighting a fourth grader! And he's losing! _

Well, you know, I don't care. Whether or not Lilly bites off some kid's finger is not my business. They shouldn't have been messing with her. Or Mia. Actually, if they'd been messing with Mia, I'd probably bite their finger off, too.

But that's different.

Anyway, by this point, everyone's looking at me, like I should be doing something. So I sigh, and I do. I follow the kid to where Lilly is tackling some punk in the middle of tattle-tale brats, I pull her off, tell her if she doesn't cut the hell out, she's going to juvy and then tougher, bigger kids are going kick _her _ass.

_Oooh, Michael said a bad word!_

Great. Now we'll get two letters home.

But this time (I'm playing foursquare) this third grader tugs on my shirt sleeve and tattles triumphantly, "Your sister is making Mia cry."

I'm walking away from the square already. "Where?" I ask sternly. The library, he says, and so I go there.

I almost shouted, but it's a library, and Mrs. Kox is kind of scary. I look edaround the corner and I found them sitting at a table.

If you hadn't been paying attention, you couldn't have been able to tell what was wrong.

Mia had artfully pushed her wild mass of almost-blonde hair into her face, and she kept her head low to the table and her eyes only poked out from underneath her hand. She was holding in her other hand a pencil and was shaking over a blank math worksheet.

Lilly was sitting across from her, shamelessly indignant, with her arms crossed as she leaned back in her chair, watching Mia tremble.

I cupped Lilly's shoulder and whispered, "Jesus, Lilly. You broke Thermopolis." I was trying to put humor into this, but the scene was too heartbreaking. I was too furious.

Mia didn't move, but Lilly turned to glare at me. "_What, do you want, Michael?" _She hissed.

"I want to know why you're making your supposedly best friend cry."

Lilly stood and turned towards me, looking irritated.

Here begins Lilly-Michael sibling banter.

"Supposedly _nothing. _Mia _is _my best friend, and I am _helping _her."

"Oh really? By making her break down in the middle of the library?"

"It's part of the process, if you must know. Why do you care, anyway? Do you just follow Mia around, waiting for her to be in trouble so you can save her like the damsel she is, sir _knight?"_

I scoffed. "Actually, _Lilith, _one of your classmates told me, and as for Mia being a _damsel, _she wouldn't _have to _if you weren't such a fat old _witch-dragon._"

"Shut the _hell _up, Michael. If it weren't for me, Mia would _rupture._ You don't do anything but stalk her like some kind of pedophilic creep."

"I _think _that maybe your wrong, Lilly. For once in your life, did you think that maybe you were _wrong? _That _you're the_ one that needs _Mia _and you're just pushing her away like you do everything good in your life? Also, I am only two years older than Mia. And I _don't _stalk her. I just want to make sure that you don't diminish my- your relationship with a girl I'd _rather _be related to."

Mia squeaked, holding in a sob behind Lilly.

"Right. Right, that's it, _exactly. _You know what, Michael? I hate you. I hate you _so much, _and I wish I were an only child again!"

She shouted the last part, gathering up all her junk, with a deadly glare and _SHHHHH_ from Mrs. Kox at the front desk.

"You were never an only child," I murmured, watching her leave.

"I wish I were. Also, Michael, we're Jewish. Find another exclamation to use in daily conversation."

She walked away.

I looked around saw that the whole library was looking at us. I glared at each person individually and they quickly went back to reading their Dr. Seuss.

Mia now hid behind both hands, her arms trembling.

I pulled the chair Lilly had been sitting in closer to Mia's and sat down.

I yanked her hands from her face. "Don't do that," her face was red and the hair around her face was sweaty. "You know how you can't take too much heat when your upset."

Grabbing her skinny arm, I peeled a blue hair band from her wrist and pushed the heavy hair from her neck. I pulled it into an awkward, high ponytail on her head.

She stared at the table.

"So. What was this even about?" I ask. Mia wordlessly pushed the worksheet in front of her towards me.

It was crumpled and marked with erased numbers. Damp with a couple of tear drops.

"Lilly-" hiccup "she said I need to learn how to do things without help. How to tough it out."

Really? This is what this was all about? Mia's _crying _because her _best friend _didn't want to help her with…rounding?

I pat Mia's back and she sighed. I don't talk to her much, but when I do, she always seems to be some kind of upset, and I seem to be, in some way, trying to make her…stop doing that.

I just don't like watching her be sad.

I can ignore her for a month, passing her on the playground, getting something from her teacher, _in my own house_, but I can't ignore a, well, a damsel Mia.

"Look, Thermopolis, I'm going to tell you a secret." She looked up at me hopefully. "Lilly, is a hag. I don't know _why _you would want to be friends with her, but I'm glad you are, and not some other annoying third grade girl."

She almost smiled.

The bell rang, then, and I stood up.

"Tell Lilly to walk herself home. I'll help you with your rounding after school, okay?"

Mia nodded, and I left.

The school library closed two hours after school ended. I was waiting outside when Mia was let out of her class.

Her hair was back down, and she was hiding behind it again. "Hey, Michael," she murmured.

I only smiled and pulled her into the library.

"You two be quiet, back there," Mrs. Kox called as we made our way into the back room.

Mia pulled out the worksheet and I pulled my chair close to hers.

"Okay," I whispered with a smile, my shoulder touching hers. "You can count to ten, right, Thermopolis?"

Mia rolled her eyes. "Yes I can, thank you."

"Good, well, rounding is really simple because all you have to do is remember that 1 through four are…"

By four, when the library closed, Mia and I were huddled side by side, in silent laughter, and she could round like nobody's business.

I was walking her home.

"Okay, okay, wait. How about this one," Mia sputtered as we walked through dimming streets. "Life is like a box of chocolates," she drawled. "You never know what you're gunna get."

I laughed at her impression, glad I had just recently been forced to see this movie. "Forrest Gump. Thermopolis, a hard one?"

Mia rolled her eyes and smiled. "Fine," she cleared her throat and murmured in a deep voice, "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who persecute offenders. These are their-"

"Really?" I was laughing too hard to breathe. People on the street were giving me weird looks. "You memorized that _whole thing?"_

"Well. Yeah. It's the closest thing they have to a theme song, so I have to learn it. It's favorite show code." Mia said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I smiled at her. "I love Law and Order,"

"Me too. When I grow up, I want to be a lawyer." She said eagerly.

"I thought you wanted to be a princess?" I teased. I still have that picture somewhere…

She blushed. "When I was like _six. _Now, I have more realistic goals."

We were in front of her loft. She pushed the button next to the name Thermopolis, still looking at me.

"Hello?" Ms. Thermopolis' voice called.

"Mom, it's me."

"Mia! Oh, my God, Mia! Where have you been? Come up here, right now!" The box buzzed and the door clicked.

I furrowed my brow. "I'm sorry," I tell her.

She shrugged. "My mom will be happy I know how to round." and then she's gone.

"Michael, where have you been?" I almost laughed when my mom screeched the same way Mia's did.

"With Mia," I told her. Her furry melted to confusion. "She needed help with homework. Where's Lilly?"

She was in her room, and so I went there, knocking tentatively on her door.

"Lil?" I mumbled.

"I would rather die than ever talk to you ever again you _monster!_" she yelled back. It was worse than I had thought; tears weakened her voice.

I opened the door, and dodged a flying pillow as I entered.

Lilly hid on her bare bed, her face stuffed in the mattress, because she had just discarded her pillow. Her legs and arms sprawled wildly.

"Hey, Lil, I'm sorry." I stood awkwardly in the doorway. She made no response.

I closed the door and made my way to her bed. I sat by her bare feet. I tickled the pad of her foot half-heartedly, with the tip of my finger, and she nearly kicked me in the face.

"I'm sorry." I said again. "I can die, if you want. Then you can be an only child, again."

Lilly pushed her torso up and turned towards me, face identical to how Mia's had been earlier that day. "You-you can't have her, Michael, she's mine."

I raised my eyebrows. "You think I…_want _Mia? Like, what? She's a third grader, Lilly. I mean, like, I'm not going to…like, _date _her or whatever. I don't even- She's _eight. _I _babysit _her. God, Lilly. I never even-"

"_No,_" She groaned. "You want her- as your- little sister!" She sobbed.

I almost laughed in relief. "Lilly," I huffed. "I didn't mean that. Mia's cool. She's really cool. But she could _not _handle being a Moscovitz."

Lilly fell back onto the bed and her body shook with silent sobs.

"She could never put up with our parents like you do. She could never put up with _me_."

I got up and walked around Lilly's bed. I grabbed her hands, half expecting her to attack me, but she didn't. I pulled her off the bed, with no help from her at all.

After a lot of work, I got the dead weight to stand. I led her to the long mirror on her wall and tucked her into my side.

I smiled at us. Our Moscovitz reflections.

She wouldn't look up.

I looked. I never realized how much we looked alike.

We had the same frown (and smile, if she would do just that)

The same thin brown hair, though mine framed my face and fell into my eyes, too-long, and hers pushed out of her face to curl down her shoulders. Shoulders that were just high enough for my arm to rest on, perfectly.

We had the same deep brown deer eyes and the same damn freckles over our cheeks and noses (though her nose was buttoned). I noticed with surprise that both of our tongues flicked out to lick chapped lips at the same time.

Freaky.

"I wouldn't trade you for anyone, Lilly." I told our reflections. I saw Lilly's peek up to stare at us too. "I love you. I guess. Or whatever."

She smiled. Kind of.

…

I pulled her shoulders toward me and stuck my fist in her hair, the moment too much for both of us. "Noogie!" I cried, rubbing my knuckles across her scalp.

"Ow! God, Michael, I'll kill you!"


End file.
